Chantal grimaced as she heard the bell ring. She slowed her pace. It wouldn't do to run now, she was late anyways. She sharply turned a corner, running up against the sharp edge of a locker handle and tearing her blouse, revealing a dark purple bruise on her shoulder bone. Chantal quickly tried to cover it up, but couldn't before a rushing Mel saw it.

Mel stopped dead in his tracks. This was it, his chance to meet Chantal. It was a great feeling until he noticed her large, dark bruise. "Chantal! Are you hurt?"

Chantal quickly covered her bruise with her torn blouse. "No, I'm fine. Thanks for asking." She began walking towards the science hall, but Mel stopped her.

"Are you sure? That bruise looks pretty bad. Here, let's go to the nurse and get it checked out," Mel began walking towards the nurse's office, but Chantal didn't follow.

"I said I was fine. That's all there is to it. I appreciate your concern, but I'm really OK."

"Maybe you need to call your parents to have them send you another blouse," Mel suggested, totally oblivious to the fact that Chantal did not want his help.

"No!" Chantal snapped before realizing it. She then looked away. "I don't need to call them."

Mel was confused. It seemed to him that when you had a problem you usually talked to your parents, but that wasn't the way that Chantal seemed to do things. "Why not? Couldn't they bring one of your other shirts?"

"Of course they could, but I don't want to ask them. Look, can we just forget about this? I've got to get my athletic suff, and I'm late enough as it is," Chantal quickly brushed past Mel and into the science hall.

Mel looked after her longingly. He wanted to help her so bad, but he couldn't get close enough to be able to. As Mel walked towards his algebra class, he made a silent vow to himself to find out what was bugging Chantal so that he could help her with it. Someway.

Sharon quickly copied the problem of the day before letting her folder fall to the floor. She was uneasy, but she didn't know why. Mrs. Hill was quietly chattering to herself as she got together the day's lesson plan while the rest of the class worked at the problem.

Sharon sat back restlessly in her chair. Kate noticed that Sharon was more fidgety than usual. "You OK, Sharon?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," Sharon responded quickly, a little too quickly.

"If you don't want to tell me, that's fine. But if you want to talk, I'm here," Kate returned to working the problem just as Meredith walked in the door.

Mrs. Hill looked up. "May I help you?"

"Here's a note from the office," Meredith handed a yellow slip to Mrs. Hill.

Mrs. Hill glanced at the slip. "Sharon, you need to head down to the office now."

Sharon looked around, worried. "Does it say what for, ma'am?"

"No, no it doesn't," Mrs. Hill replied. "But I'm sure there's nothing wrong."

Sharon took the piece of paper from Mrs. Hill and exited the room. She couldn't imagine any reason they could have for calling her down to the office. She hadn't done anything to anyone, and no one had done anything to her. It was strange. Something about the office call made her feal uneasier than before. Sharon was shocked when she found her mother sitting in the front office.

Sharon ran into the room. "Mom, what are you doing here?"

Mrs. Redmon looked up at Sharon with eyes that indicated to Sharon that she'd been crying. "Oh, Sharon."

Sharon was frightened. "What is it, Mom? What's going on?"

"It's your brother."

"Will? What's wrong with him?" Sharon questioned.

"He...he..." Mrs. Redmon searched for the words that she was looking for.

"He what?"

A fresh batch of tears began racing down Mrs. Redmon's cheeks, a sight that made Sharon want to burst into tears on the spot. "Will is sick, Sharon."

"Sick? How sick?"

"Very sick, Sharon. He has...he has..." Mrs. Redmon stopped to take a deep breath. "He has lukemia, Sharon."

Carson wheeled around quickly. A look of terror filled his eyes when he looked at Karen. "Oh God, no. Karen, please..."

Karen's demeanor fired every warning signal it could. The entire atmosphere around the three seemed as if it were about to explode. "No...no..." was all Karen could say.

"Karen, please. Don't jump to conclusions just yet," Carson said, walking slowly towards Karen.

That did it.

"Jump to conlusions! Wow, isn't that an understatement!" Karen quickly advanced on Carson & Ebony. "How dare you do this to me!"

"Girl, he didn't just do it to you. He did it to me, too," Ebony put in, putting her hands on her hips.

Karen turned angrily on Ebony. "You lying, backstabbing-"

"Karen..." Carson interrupted just in time.

Ebony stepped forward. "No, Carson. Let her finish."

Karen tried to control her fury, but she couldn't. She turned on Carson. "I can't believe you did this to me," Karen said in a voice that made chills run up and down Carson's spine.

"Karen, listen..." Carson tried again.

"I'm not going to listen to a word you have to say, Carson!" Karen yelled at him. "You cheated on me with that sl**, what do you expect me to do?"

Ebony stepped forward again, infuriated. "Sl**? Who do you think you're calling a sl**? It sure better not be me, because if it is..."

"Ladies, please..."

"Shut up, Carson! It is time for me to take care of this. I'm going to give an example to everyone else of what happens when you mess with Karen Berkley," Karen stepped up and slapped Carson so hard he stumbled backwards, stunned. "Don't you ever talk to me or even look my way, Carson Love. How ironic! You're nothing but a love machine, Carson. You're a cheating, manipulative reject if you ask me!"

"Yeah, well nobody asked you, honey!" Ebony snapped. "What gives you the right to trash him when you're the one that fell for his phony act?"

Karen looked at Ebony incredulously. "You did too! But the thing is is that you went behind my back. You're my roommate, Ebony. I didn't expect you to be working against me to steal my boyfriend!"

"I didn't work against you, Karen. Carson came to me to get something that he knew he couldn't get from you!"

"What was that, an airheaded wench who only knows how to do that one thing, hmmm? I thought Carson had more class than to condescend to the likes of you," Karen shot back coolly.

Ebony was so enraged that she slapped Karen, then stormed off. Karen's hand flew to her cheek. Her eyes blazed a dangerous fire. She turned back to a downed and pained Carson. "I will make you pay for what you've done to me, Carson. I trusted you to be my rock after my breakup with Zach. Little did I know that you were having an affair behind my back. No, I will not let this happen to me twice. Watch your back, Carson, and you'd better watch it good."

Mel walked inauspiciously into Mrs. Hill's classroom. Mrs. Hill was so aborbed in debating herself about a problem that she didn't notice. Mel sat down next to Rusty.

"Where've you been, man?"

"I ran into Chantal."

Rusty smiled knowingly. "I should've known. So did you two hit it off and make passionate love in the janitor's closet?"

Mel looked at Rusty as if he were crazy. "No, not exactly. She tore her blouse, and I noticed that she had a huge bruise on her shoulder bone. She tried to hide it and all, but I know there's something behind it."

"You go that right," Rusty answered, leaning back in his desk.

Mel nearly pounced on Rusty. "Do you know what's going on with her?"

Rusty leaned in closer to Mel. "What I've heard is that things aren't going so well for Chantal at home. That's why she stays in the dorms instead of at her house. She and her parents don't get along so well, and I can't blame her."

"Why is that?"

"Well, if you had an alcoholic dad and a despondent mom, wouldn't you?"

Mel turned towards the front, stunned beyond belief. "So they must have..." his voice trailed off.

Rusty finished it for him. "Beaten her? I wouldn't be surprised."

"No, not to Chantal," Mel tried to rationalize it, but he couldn't. "But it makes sense!"

Rusty nodded. "And from what I hear, it's getting a lot worse than it has been before. Chantal sometimes comes to school totally out of it. No one can get through to her. Whatever her parents are doing to her, it's some serious stuff. I really think that Chantal is in some real danger."

Mel nodded his head without realizing it. He had to help her. Some kind of way he had to help get her out of that situation. As he had promised before, he'd help her...someway.

Sharon staggered back, almost tripping on another chair. "Lukemia?" she whispered.

Mrs. Redmon nodded, weeping openly in front of the sympathetic secretary.

"Oh no. No!" Sharon mouthed the words but couldn't get them out.

"We just found out last week. Your father is taking him to the hospital for his appointment, and I made arrangements to come down here to let you know. Sharon, we're going to need your support back home."

Sharon put her hands over her ears and shook her head violently. "No! No! Stop it! You're making it all up!" She began laughing wildly. "You can't fool me, Mom! Nice Halloween trick, but it isn't working! It isn't working!"

Mrs. Redmon grabbed hold of Sharon's shoulders and tried to steady her. "It's true, Sharon! Why would I want to say something like that about my own son?"

"No!" Sharon screamed at the top of her lungs before rushing out of the office and out of the school. She shaded her eyes from the bright sun. Sharon began running madly down the sidewalk to the beach, sobbing wildly.

She got to the beach and crumpled into a heap of sobbing dejectedness. Her sweet, kind, laughing little brother that never let anything happen to him was stricken with lukemia. No! It couldn't be true! It couldn't!

But it was. As waves lapped at the golden sands, Sharon crawled along the beach, her hair masking her face. Suddenly she stood up and raised her hands to the sky. "Why, God? Why did you have to do this to him? Why do you want to kill my litte brother? Why?!"

Sharon's world began spinning. She felt sick. She fell on her knees, crying out in pain. She saw her mother rushing towards her, then she saw two mothers, then four. Sharon collapsed into a heep, drifting off into a state of unconsciousness where the pain couldn't reach her, where the truth couldn't hurt her.

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